Governor Off on Trade Mission to Europe

Gov. George Deukmejian, who lately has been venturing outside the comfortable cocoon of California’s Capitol and stepping gingerly into the rowdy arena of national politics, leaves for Europe tonight on his second foreign trade mission in three months.

After a 10-hour “red-eye” flight to London and a short nap, the governor will go to 10 Downing Street for a meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “He’ll sleep on the airplane,” said Chief of Staff Steven A. Merksamer.

In his session with Thatcher--and in subsequent meetings, speeches and press conferences during the 12-day trip, which also will take him to Brussels and Paris--Deukmejian intends to lobby for the lowering of trade barriers and to promote America’s most populous state as a healthy place to invest. But, just as important, he also wants to address allegations in European business circles that California has become so mesmerized with the rapidly expanding Pacific Rim that it is neglecting old friends.

“The Europeans have said on numerous occasions that we’re so obsessed now with the Pacific Rim that we’re ignoring our traditional trading partners,” said Kirk West, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, which will host a lavish reception for British industrialists while Deukmejian is in London.

And Gregory Mignano, executive director of the California World Trade Commission, said that despite the state’s growing commerce with Asia, the governor’s message “will reflect the realism that we ought not to bind our trade destiny to one part of the world.”

The focal point of the trip will be the opening of the California-European Trade and Investment Office in London on Monday. Deukmejian opened a similar office in Tokyo in January. These are the first overseas trade offices California has had since then-Gov. Ronald Reagan closed three--in Frankfurt, Tokyo and Mexico City--during a 1968 budget-cutting frenzy.

The Deukmejian Administration, though determined to expand foreign trade, still is cautiously feeling its way--operating a relatively modest $9-million program of product marketing at international trade shows, short-term loan guarantees for export financing and gentle lobbying of leaders in Washington, Japan and now Europe. Last year, California--which boasts the world’s seventh-largest economy and accounts for 15% of all U.S. trade--became the first state to place a full-time trade representative in Washington.

“We’re still trying to figure out what (California’s) role is in all this. Why should a state have a ‘World Trade Commission?’ ” asked former Assembly Speaker Robert T. Monagan, whom Deukmejian appointed to head the commission.

“We’re still just a state, not a nation. But foreign business leaders come to California and want to deal with us as if we were a nation. Our government’s not structured to deal with that. So we’re trying to get California to respond as a sort of semi-nation state.”

National Politics

Deukmejian clearly also is trying to define his own role in national policy and politics. And the only thing certain right now is that he wants it to be a larger role.

Having flirted with and rejected the idea of running next year as a “favorite son” presidential candidate--most national politicos he consulted advised him to run seriously or not at all--Deukmejian now is forming a private citizens group to help advance his political career. He is not sure precisely where he wants it to advance.

“I want to have available all possible options for my future in public life,” the 58-year-old governor told reporters recently in disclosing plans for the group, which he named Citizens for Common Sense. The only option he “ruled out” was going on the presidential ticket in 1988.

Sounds Like a Candidate

But Deukmejian has been experimenting with a new speech--so far tried out only privately among Republican political friends--in which he talks--uncharacteristically--every bit like a 1988 presidential candidate. The address was written by Deukmejian’s chief speech writer, Jim Robinson, who also happens to be his chief trade adviser. And it illustrates how the governor hopes to use the trade issue to help project a new national political image.

“Competitiveness means unshackling our great private enterprise economy and unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit of our people,” said Deukmejian, echoing President Reagan, for whom Robinson also used to write. “The (presidential) candidate who wants to carry California will have to understand that our state has benefited enormously from a free and open trading system. Protectionism does not sell well here. Like all Americans, we want a fair deal when it comes to trade. We want to compete on an even playing field. But our solution to the trade deficit is not to reduce trade but to expand exports.

“The current federal budget deficit is a disgrace. Everybody knows that. . . . I believe voters have increasing respect for candidates who have the strength to ‘just say no’ (to government spending).”

President’s Dilemma

And he added, in an eye-opening remark, that making do with present tax resources is “the dilemma any new President will face in 1988--in fact, it sounds a lot like being governor of California.”

Merksamer, who soon will resign as the governor’s chief of staff to practice law and assume a leadership role in Citizens for Common Sense, said that Deukmejian “clearly will be more focused on national and international issues” during his second term. “It’s time for him to start speaking out.”

Ken Khachigian, a friend and political adviser to Deukmejian who also is Reagan’s favorite speech writer, said of the governor and the presidency, looking ahead to 1992, “He’s not thinking specifically about it, but he’s beginning to think about thinking about it.”

Change of Heart

Deukmejian would have regarded such talk as blasphemy during his first term. He exhibited disdain for national politics then, dismissing out of hand any friendly suggestion that he consider running for President, declining to exert any influence on his old ally the President and shunning invitations for major speeches and requests for news media interviews. He didn’t even have a passport.

But since his landslide reelection victory over Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley last November, the governor has adopted a newer, seemingly more confident, attitude.

“Everybody said to him during the first term, ‘Look, as governor of California, you’ve got to think nationally, think nationally,’ and he just put it off. Now, it’s finally time for him to be thinking about national issues and politics and everything else,” observed Khachigian, adding the disclaimer that all gubernatorial advisers use: “But his first priority still is the state.”